Spiral Knights - Seriously, what does Dragon Scale shield's good for? (other than resist fire status)

Seriously, what does Dragon Scale shield's good for? (other than resist fire status)

11 replies [Last post]

Tue, 10/04/2011 - 23:04

Crimson-Lily

it has only elemental and pierce defense.
and yet, it always break on 3RD HIT of puppy's elemental bullet. and break on 3RD HIT on Jelly's piercing attack, and break on 3RD HIT of Jelly tower's piercing bullet, and break on 3RD HIT of wolver's piercing attack, and break on 1ST HIT of Alpha wolver attack.
and by break at 3rd hit attack, means we can only block 2 attack and receive damage on the third hit.
don't ask about the normal attack result....

so seriously.... WHAT DOES IT'S GOOD AT ?
don't mention about the fire resist status ... Wise owl and Volcanic plate shield pretty much covered that too.
so it's a joke if it's the only thing that it's good at.

the only positive thing that i can find in this shield is only the fire resist and cool looking.....

Wed, 10/05/2011 - 02:03

Alice-In-Pyroland

If you're using it in tier 2,

If you're using it in tier 2, all attacks deal split Normal/X damage which is why it's breaking so quickly. In tier 3 it has the distinct advantage of resisting both gun puppies and polyps, of shielding against any monster that deals pure piercing/elemental such as wolvers, I believe the 'lisks, jellies, lichen spike attacks, any construct projectile, ect.

Wed, 10/05/2011 - 07:38

Crimson-Lily

tried that too.

i already tried in t3 too, gun puppy in arena. it's the same, break on 3rd hit. polyps too....

Wed, 10/05/2011 - 08:51

Somenubcake

crimson-lily

if what you say is true, then you've just shattered my dreams of using a dragon scale shield as my general purpose shield in T3...

by the way did u level the shield to level 10 when you tested it?

Wed, 10/05/2011 - 19:40

Crimson-Lily

yeah

yes, level 10 already. and yes, unless we find out other advantage of this shield other than fire resist.
don't use it. waste my ce already on crafting this.
volcanic plate or wise owlite shield is waaaay better for general purpose in my opinion.

Wed, 10/05/2011 - 19:51

Arctic-Fern

Well..

My Heavy Plate Shield breaks in 2 hits in T3 (though I only take miniscule damage when it breaks) and I'm having a hard time "heating it up". I wonder if that will improve once it becomes a Volcanic Plate... I know the bars sometimes lie but it kind of sucks when a Volcanic/Ironmight Plate Shield has the same health as the Heavy Plate Shield...

BY the way, does a Grey Owlite take 4 hits to break in T3 from elemental hits? Otherwise it wouldn't be fair to say Dragon Scale sucks if its rival has the same problem..

Wed, 10/05/2011 - 20:07

Crimson-Lily

hmmm

no volcanic plate has a lot more health than it's 4* predecessor, well, almost all 4* shield basically breaks on the 2nd hit in T3. but my Volcanic plate break on 3rd hit of elemental or piercing bullet in t3, just the same as dragon scale shield. but can withstand normal damage very heavily. (trojan especially) almost never break from a trojan attack, except being comboed by 2 or more trojan.

and yes, grey owlite take 4th hit to break from elemental hits.

and crest of almire take 5th hit to break from zombie attack in fsc. (well, just so you know..), but takes 2 hit to break from vana attack.
Volcanic plate, 3 hit to break from zombie, but takes 3 hit to break from vana attack.

Wed, 10/05/2011 - 20:49

Somenubcake

how many polyp hits can the

how many polyp hits can the grey owlite take? 2?

Wed, 10/05/2011 - 21:44

Actin

This info is a little too

This info is a little too imprecise. Getting measurements of how strong a shield is by hits is rough at best since you recharge so fast you need a very consistent damage source and most monsters will move around or use multiple types of attack or attack so slowly that your shield recharges between hits. For instance at depth 22 today my grey owlite broke when hit by 2 simultaneous hits from 2 different polyps but against 1 polyp it took 4 concurrent hits with not moving before it overpowered my natural shield regen between shots.

Thu, 10/06/2011 - 03:27

Abathur

The point is that it's WRONG

The point is that it's WRONG that all mobs deal only Ele or only Pierce in T3. For example Gun Puppies: They deal Full Ele + the type damage (shock, fire etc). If you got no Resist for that on your shield it brakes faster, same as the puppy would deal normal / ele against ele shield. I guess this is why it breakes so fast.

Also there even are T3 mobs dealing split damage (normal + X)

Thu, 10/06/2011 - 10:21

#10

Crimson-Lily

yah true

maybe not really that accurate. but basically that's the general idea. and to clear it up, what i mean from the first post is the kind of simultaneous block.
actually, i own dragon scale shield, volcanic plate, and owlite shield, and all this time i use those shield, i really feel dragon scale shield really break much faster than the other 2 shield. against all kind of t2 and t3 enemy.

@Actin
isn't owlite shield don't have piercing defense?

as for abathur, hmmm yes you're right.
so back to the question, what enemy that Dragon Scale shield good to block at? only fire puppy then ? which enemy that does piercing + elemental ? t3 fire elemental polyps ? hmmmm i haven't tried it to those enemy.... will try later. i rarely met fire polyps.

Thu, 10/06/2011 - 12:03

#11

Actin

Yes it has no piercing

Yes it has no piercing defense but I was just throwing out an example of how 2 different ways of counting hits gets 2 very different results and people need to attach some context to these hits before breaking counts.

More to the point of the thread, the dragon scale is purely for stopping ranged attacks from gunpuppies and polyps in t3. Even in t3 most melee attacks have some mix of normal damage in them, which is why wolver or jelly hits break a piercing defense shield so fast, it has no normal defense. The only things that do pure special damage are turrets in t3, so the ideal t3 turret shield has only special defenses and no normal defense, so the dragon shield. Its elemental defense is about the same as a grey owlite so it performs about the same against gunpuppies, even has fire defense for red rover flamethrowers, but instead of the normal defense that lets the owlite function as a great all around shield the dragon scale has piercing defense which is good for polyp shots and not much else. So if you're a gunner or a bomber who plays it safe and you only ever need to block ranged attacks it might be worth taking, although you'll still want a shadow shield to swap in for howlitzers and devilite staplers in appropriate stratum, otherwise it's a waste of time.

EDIT: to provide some more tangible context, i just got to the same polyps at depth 22 as i did with my grey owlite the other day, but this time using a dragon scale. The grey owlite broke in 4 consecutive shots, the dragon scale took 16 shots before it broke through the natural shield regen. I wasn't able to finagle a good clean simultaneous hit for the dragon scale, it is an arena after all it's a little hectic until there's just the one polyp left up.

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Seriously, what does Dragon Scale shield's good for? (other than resist fire status)